Walking down hill in the winter seems
like such a waste of time when there is nice, fluffy snow on the
ground. Amy and I rented backcountry skiis at EMS and set out to
find some powder. On a recommendation from the Jay at EMS, we
headed for Berthoud Pass west of Denver, specifically the Second Creek
area.
The day was gorgeous and, unlike the mountains east of the Divide,
the powder was abundant. We parked at the popular trail head and
started out. I've been skiing in various forms since I was a tot
but Amy is a neophyte. These backcountry skis were much like the
old-school cross country skis I grew up with but shorter, fatter and
with metal edges. Supposedly these help you when going down
hill. For uphill movement, there are fish scales on the bottoms
replacing the usual waxing ritual I've grown accustomed to.
The first hundred feet of the trail was a real
eye-openner! The fish-scales didn't really help on the
steep terrain we encountered. The snow was so light and fluffy
that our poles sank in several feet and the going was definitely
rough. After some good thrashing about, we made it onto a more
packed down part of the trail and it wasn't as steep. Still, we
had to herring-bone up the trail most of the time. Eventually, we
made it to the base of a very steep, open glade. Sidestepping was
the only way to get up this.
Despite the hard work and unaccustomed motions, the area was
beautiful. The sun shone down fiercely on ample snow.
Across the valley stood the Divide with Mt. Flora and Colorado Mines
Peak prominent. Ahead of us loomed the long, corniced ridge of
Mt. Vasquez (?) and the Mount Vasquez Wilderness.
The peaks of the Continental Divide seen across the valley |
Charles herring-bones up the trail. |
We turned around here and headed out. After all the hard
work of going up hill, I was looking forward to letting gravity do the
work. The tele-slope was quite a bit steeper from above than it
appeared from below. I gamely set out and attempted a tele-turn
falling definitively on my hindquarters... repeatedly.
Apparently, it's harder than it looks! I tried my default alpine
techniques to steer myself and fared little better. The
combination of dense powder and free heels gave me pretty much the same
result as the tele-turns. The only graceful option was to
continue in a strait line and then fall over. I achieved some
screaming speed on the way down to the flats and ran out half-way to
the base of the avalanche chutes.
Amy, meanwhile, was having conciderably less success and, after a
couple of falls, took her skis off and scooted down the slope.
Back on the gentle slopes, we tried some easy skis and gradually made
our way down toward the steepest hill by cutting various traverses in
untrammelled snow back and forth. When confronted by the steep
glade, Amy gave up and slid down skis in hand. I gamely tried to
muscle my way through a couple turns, failed, fell, and resigned myself
to traversing back and forth at shallow angles down the hillside.
The beautiful flats near Second Creek Cabin. Note the avalanche chutes on the ridge to the left. |
The tele-hill and Mount Vasquez from near the cabin. |
It was a memorable and gorgeous trip, but next time, we'll try a
different mode of transportation or stay in the realm of the horizontal.